Target to open city store TargetExpress in Berkeley

Target will open a TargetExpress store in downtown Berkeley in March 2015. This is a photo of the first TargetExpress store, which opened in July in Minneapolis. Photo: Target

BERKELEYSIDE: Berkeley residents often complain there’s nowhere in their city to buy underwear. That might change now that Target has announced it will open one of its new breed of city stores, called TargetExpress, in downtown.

The Minneapolis-based retailer is poised to turn a long vacant building at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way into one of its new-concept TargetExpress stores by March 2015. The store will only be 12,000 square feet – compared to the average Target store size of 80,000 square feet – but will sell food, clothing, accessories, and consumer electronics that will appeal to students, commuters, and downtown’s growing residential population.

“This fills a critical 12,000 square feet of vacant space,” said Michael Caplan, the manager of Berkeley’s economic development program. “Many people from Berkeley frequent the Target stores in Albany and Emeryville. That takes consumer dollars out of our community. Even though this store is smaller, it will be an opportunity for people to get some of those products here.”

Target also announced it will open a second TargetExpress in San Francisco near the Montgomery BART station. The company plans to announce the location of a third TargetExpress location in San Francisco later this year. It opened its first TargetExpress in Minneapolis in July.